Senior US officials believe Russia maintains a “training facility” for rebels in the country’s south-west, according to details emerging from the partial declassification of intelligence on MH17.

So far details largely correspond with previous administration statements and reports in the press. The Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman reports:

Among the contributing factors contributing to the preliminary assessment: training given by Russia to separatist rebels on air-defense weapons, which they have used in recent weeks to shoot down about a dozen aircraft. The officials said such training had taken place in south-west Russia, and that Ukrainian forces fighting the separatists have yet to fire a surface-to-air missile, as their conflict is on the ground.

The officials used social network posts and media posted on the internet to support key points of what they described as a “solid case”, with one official alluding to a deleted post attributed to Igor Girkin, a rebel commander: “After it became evident that the plane was a civilian airliner, separatists deleted social media posts boasting about shooting down a plane.”

The officials said they believed that rocket launchers, other artillery pieces and tanks have transited through a “training facility” in south-west Russia, en route to rebels in Ukraine, but that many details of the crash, including who exactly fired the missile, remain unconfirmed or unknown.

“We are seeing a full court press by the Russian government to instruct affiliated or friendly elements to manipulate the media,” an intelligence official said.

Almost a third of that estimate includes victims of the MH17 crash, while fighting in east Ukraine, between the military and rebels, has killed more people in recent days. Rebels report 10 civilians killed in the past 24 hours, in which time Ukraine’s military says 13 soldiers have also died.

A pro-Russian rebel looks up while ridding on a tank flying Russia’s flag, on a road east of Donetsk. Photograph: Vadim Ghirda/AP

Updated at 10.32pm BST

10.18pm BST

US intelligence supports theory of rebel 'mistake'

A press conference was held this afternoon by the US office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), at which select reporters were briefed on US intelligence with regard to MH17, the SA-11 missile system suspected, and rebels’ and Russians’ alleged participation.

Details are expected soon, but a report from the AP has come out saying that “senior US intelligence officials say they have no evidence of direct Russian government involvement” in the downing of MH17.

They say the passenger jet was likely felled by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and that Russia “created the conditions” for the downing by arming the separatists.

They said they didn’t know if any Russians were present at the missile launch, and they wouldn’t say that the missile crew was trained in Russia.

The briefing underlined the theory espoused by most of a senior official at the briefing, and by most analysts since plane first crashed: rebels “most likely shot down the plane by mistake”.

Updated at 10.22pm BST

10.08pm BST

“Western allies need to follow Russian assets: the yachts, mansions, estates … most owned via western shell companies and funded via western banks. It is here that the west has leverage,” writes journalist Oliver Bullough, in an editorial about sanctions and Russian financial influence in the Wall Street Journal.

Mr Putin is often credited with rebuilding Russia, but that has been as much aided by $100-a-barrel oil as by anything he has done. Hundreds of billions of dollars have poured out of Russia since he took power in 2000, while corruption has spread to encompass every element of the economy.

Western banks are the gatekeepers to our financial system and are supposed to report suspicious transactions, obey US and European financial laws and sanctions, and turn away illegal money.

Changing the way we treat Russian money, making its owners prove its provenance before banks accept it, would at a stroke cut away one of the struts that support the Putin regime.

It is up to Russians to improve their own country, but we can help by ceasing to accept the money their rulers steal. Sanctions treat the symptoms of the disease, not its cause, and the longer we put that off, the deeper the cancer of dirty money will penetrate our countries – and the harder cutting it out will become.

A former advisor to Vladimir Putin has warned against intervention in Ukraine and anti-western rhetoric, Reuters reports.

Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister of Russia, said costs of Kremlin interference in Ukraine and isolationism economically could end up severely damaging the country’s economy, and in particular its citizens.

“There are forces in the country who have long wanted to distance us, who have wanted isolation, perhaps some kind of self-reliance,” he said. “All this has fallen onto fertile ground. I’m just surprised at the scale of the anti-western rhetoric which has emerged here.”

“The political landscape in our country has changed significantly,” Kudrin, 53, told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency. “We have again become the West’s adversaries.”

Kudrin, who quit in 2011 in protest against rising military spending, said Russia should not risk the repercussions of economic sanctions.

“Businesses want to work, invest, build factories, trade,” he said. “And business is very concerned by what it hears on the radio or sees on the TV.”

Sanctions could cost ordinary Russians about a fifth of their income, he warned, due to a falling rouble and rising inflation. “Figuratively speaking, it is as if we agreed to give up 15-20% of our salaries,” he said.

In the first half of 2014, more than $70bn in capital flowed out of Russia, following the annexation of Crimea.

9.37pm BST

Putin then called on Kiev to implement a ceasefire, but blamed Putin then blamed “radical, nationalist, often even neo-fascist, fundamental forces, [including in] Ukraine now” for inciting violence and instability.

With regard to “ultimatums and sanctions”, however, he said “such methods will not work with Russia.”

The recipes used regarding weaker states fraught with internal conflict will not work with us. Our people, the citizens of Russia will not let this happen and will never accept this.

Attempts are clearly being made to destabilize the social and economic situation, to weaken Russia in one way or another or to strike at our weaker spots, and they will continue primarily to make us more agreeable in resolving international issues.

So-called international competition mechanisms are being used as well (this applies to both politics and the economy); for this purpose the special services’ capabilities are used, along with modern information and communication technologies and dependent, puppet non-governmental organizations – so-called soft force mechanisms. This, obviously, is how some countries understand democracy.

The Kremlin has published an English-language transcript of President Vladimir Putin’s remarks to Russia’s security council, made earlier today.

About “the terrible tragedy … in the sky above Donetsk”, he said:

We would like once again to express our condolences to the families of the victims; it is a terrible tragedy. Russia will do everything within its power to ensure a proper comprehensive and transparent investigation. We are asked to influence the militia in the southeast. As I have said, we will do everything in our power, but this is absolutely insufficient.

Yesterday when the militia forces were handing over the so-called black boxes, the armed forces of Ukraine launched a tank attack at the city of Donetsk. The tanks battled through to the railway station and opened fire at it. International experts who came to investigate the disaster site could not stick their heads out. It was clearly not the militia forces shooting at themselves.

9.13pm BST

ABC News’ Moscow correspondent Kirit Radia has tweeted photos of unguarded debris scattered over the fields, and pointed out the almost complete lack of site security that other journalists and international have observed in recent days.

Summary

• Eyewitnesses in Torez told the Guardian they saw what appeared to have been a Buk SA-11 missile system near the time and location of the MH17 crash. The US says it will present intelligence to back up its assertion that a missile fired from rebel-controlled territory took down the passenger jet. Separatists deny possession of any system and blame Ukraine, and Russia denies it provided any system to armed groups.

The US joined the UK in criticizing France over its €1.2bn deal to sell warships to Russia, with representatives calling the transfer “inappropriate” and saying the deal’s timing was “suboptimal, if you will”.

Deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said at a briefing to reporters: “We don’t think anyone should be providing arms to Russia … [US officials] clearly think it’s completely inappropriate. And we’ve told them they should not do it.”

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest told reporters: “It seems like a suboptimal time, if you will, to be transferring advanced military systems to them. … We’ve seen ample evidence that the Russians are flouting international norms, supporting efforts to violate the territorial integrity of independent sovereign nations.”

The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, in turn accused Britain of hypocrisy in its willingness to sanction powerful Russian figures, telling TF1 television: “The English in particular were very pleasant so to speak saying we would never do that, but I told my dear British friends let’s talk about the financial sector … I am led to believe that there are quite a few Russian oligarchs in London.”

8.34pm BST

Earlier Tuesday UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the EU must send a “very clear signal to Russia”, and that “we mustn’t forget the overall context here. This terrible incident happened in the first place because of Russia’s support for the separatists.”

The EU will reconvene Thursday to discuss possible sanctions.

British foreign secretary Philip Hammond’s comments about the MH17 disaster.

8.26pm BST

Russia Today, the news outlet owned and run by the Russian government, faces investigation in the UK over its MH17 coverage, Buzzfeed’s Jim Waterson reports.

The British regulatory body tasked with ensuring “broadly impartial news coverage” to channels with a UK license “said it was considering whether to investigate Russia Today following complaints from viewers about the tone of its coverage of the Malaysia Airlines disaster.”

Various Russian print outlets, meanwhile, are circulating arguments that the Ukrainian military shot down MH17, and that if rebels did shoot down the plane, Kiev would still bear “legal responsibility”, according to Tom Balforth in RFE/RL, a part of the Guardian’s New East Network.

Balforth presents excerpts and summaries of articles and editorials in the Moscow Komsomolets, the Independent Daily and the Komsomol Truth. You can read his article here.

Updated at 8.31pm BST

8.12pm BST

It will likely take weeks for black box data analysis to complete in tandem with examination of the wreckage, the Guardian’s Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) writes in a a report the work British investigators face in Farnborough later this week.

The voice recorder carries two hours of cockpit audio recording. Analysts looking into crashes will examine not just what the pilot and co-pilot say but also any telltale clicks as instruments are engaged, as well as possible sounds of an explosion. On the assumption that MH17 was hit by a missile it seems unlikely the pilots’ actions played any role, but everything must be analysed.

The data recorder collects an entire flight’s worth of information from dozens of sensors.

MH17’s recorders were in the hands of pro-Russia rebels before they were handed to Malaysian investigators. Experts say it would be extremely difficult to tamper with the data, and the memory cards used in the recorders have serial numbers matched to those on the recorders so they cannot be secretly substituted.

The Netherlands has declared Wednesday a day of national mourning, agencies report.

King Willem Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte will go to a military air base for the arrival of the first victims’ bodies in the country Wednesday. Relatives will also reportedly be present.

The Dutch government said that church bells will ring for five minutes before the arrival of the flight carrying remains, and that the country will observe a minute of silence. Representatives from 10 countries will be present, and the ministry of justice said “everybody can join in.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Moscow correspondent Paul Sonne confirms OSCE observers’ statement about an almost total lack of security and control at the crash site, tweeting from near the village of Rossypnoe.

Earlier this week, monitors at the train’s loading in Torez reported that conditions made examination and an accurate accounting of the bodies impossible.

7.39pm BST

Cities and towns in eastern Ukraine have been the scene of intense fighting between the Ukrainian military and rebel groups, and residential areas are among those being hit by shelling.

Snizhne, under separatist control and near the suspected launch site of a missile that shot down MH17, joins Severodonetsk, Oktyabrsky, Donetsk and Luhansk as cities close to the ongoing battles. Rebels say the Ukrainian military is deliberately bombing civilian areas.

A woman walks through a makeshift bomb shelter in the basement of a school building, in a residential area affected by shelling in Donetsk. Photograph: Rob Stothard/Getty Images

The entrance of an apartment from a destroyed blockhouse in Snizhne, 110km from Donetsk. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

7.26pm BST

Ukrainian military forces have retaken the villages of Severodonetsk and Oktyabrsky, while the fighting continues in intense, sporadic bursts near the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, both under rebel control.

Ukraine called up significant reserve forces and men under 50 Tuesday, and accused Russia of massing troops at the border. AFP reports on the conflict:

On a road near Donetsk, there was a bombed-out T-64 tank. The bodies of three Ukrainian soldiers could be seen lying next to the wreckage.

“We are defending ourselves. I don’t want to kill my brothers but we are under attack,” a 39-year-old rebel and Donetsk native who said he fired the fatal anti-tank rocket that hit the vehicle. “We will bury the bodies or maybe exchange them for bodies of our own guys,” he said.

A gaunt said there were exchanges of fire ongoing further up the road, near the village of Pervomayskoye. The man, who wielded a machine-gun painted green to disguise it and wore camouflage uniform, said: “I will fight until death”.

A burnt Ukrainian army tank on the outskirts of Donetsk. Ukraine Photograph: Igor Kovalenko/EPA

7.14pm BST

OSCE observers have said “some pieces of wreckage have been sawn in half”, AFP reports, which was also told by an expert that damage on wreckage corresponds to a “shrapnel pattern”.

Photographs show a piece of fuselage peppered with “a fairly dense but also widespread shrapnel pattern” typical for the blast from an SA-11 surface-to-air missile, said defence analyst Justin Bronk, an analyst in Military Science at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“But to get a conclusive answer you would have to take the aircraft away and completely reconstruct it as best as you could,” he told AFP.

“We did observe changes at the site. The fuselage has been moved. It appears that the cone section is split in two and it appears that the tail fin has been moved.”

Rebels, civilians and journalists have been walking all over the crash scene, handling objects, while observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have said some pieces of wreckage have been sawn in half.

Debris is spread over an area of around 12 square miles.

A satellite image made available by Airbus DS / AllSource Analysis showing the main crash site of the Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Photograph: Airbus DS/AllSource Analysis/EPA

Updated at 9.55pm BST

7.06pm BST

There is “effectively no security at the crash site”, according to an OSCE spokesman quoted by Reuters.

Michael Bociurkiw added that only a small number of international experts had visited so far, and that “We’ve never really seen that intensive combing over the site – people arm in arm going over the fields.”

“We have noticed quite marked changes to some of the crash impact areas.”

An armed separatist stands guard as monitors from the OSCE and members of a Malaysian air crash investigation team inspect the crash site. Photograph: Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

Updated at 10.43pm BST

6.52pm BST

Body parts remain at the crash site near Grabovo, OSCE monitors tell Reuters, with spokesman Michael Bociurkiw saying “We observed the presence of smaller body parts at the site,” an OSCE spokesman. “We did not observe any recovery activity in place.”

Rebels followed by members of the OSCE mission at plane wreckage. Photograph: Vadim Ghirda/AP

The Washington Post’s Moscow chief Michael Birnbaum records some of the personal affects scattered around the site.

US President Barack Obama paid his respects to victims of the disaster at the Dutch embassy in Washington, AFP reports.

“Obviously, we are all heartbroken,” Obama said after signing the condolence book in the embassy’s entrance hall. The president expressed US “solidarity with the people of the Netherlands” and offered “deepest condolences” on behalf of the nation.

Obama said Washington would work with the Netherlands “to make sure their loved ones are recovered and justice” is done.

Summary

• Eyewitnesses in Torez tell the Guardian they saw what appeared to have been a Buk missile system near the time and location of the MH17 crash. The US asserts that a missile fired from rebel-controlled territory took down the passenger jet, while separatists deny possession of any system and blame Ukraine. Russia denies it provided any system to armed groups.

• The crash site was increasingly opened to investigators as rebels and Kiev agreed to limited ceasefire zones. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko ordered a 40km no-fire radius around the site, while rebels said they would observe a 10km zone.

• Black boxes will be taken to the UK for analysis, at the request of the Dutch government. Ukraine ceded leadership of the investigation to the Netherlands, and remains of the victims and flight will begin arriving at a military base there Wednesday.

Konstantin Malofeev, the suspect, at various points employed both Alexander Borodai, who calls himself the prime minister of the separatists, and Igor Girkin, who calls himself Strelkov and is the military commander of rebel forces in east Ukraine. Both Borodai and Girkin are Russian citizens.

PM Najib Razak, who negotiated the release of the black boxes and the remains of 282 bodies earlier this morning after speaking personally with the rebel leader, announced the meeting last Friday, declaring it a “firm statement” from the Malaysian people.

5.48pm BST

Many people in Torez did not want to speak about the Buk or claimed to have never heard anything about it, but others told the Guardian that the missile’s journey through the town has been a major talking point in recent days.

Many residents of the town, where victims’ bodies were kept on a rebel-controlled train until late Monday, remain scared of divulging too much to outsiders. None of those who confirmed sightings of the Buk wanted their names used. Shaun Walker’s (@shaunwalker7) report continues:

Armed rebels at the checkpoint outside the entrance to Snizhe were turning cars with journalists back on Tuesday, saying they had received orders not to let press into the town.

Ukrainian intelligence has suggested that the missile launcher was provided by Russia and taken back across the border after the deadly attack on MH17.

“It is most likely that the machinery which fired the missiles at Malaysian aircraft will be destroyed and the people who committed the act of terror will be annihilated,” claimed Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister.

Russia, however, has denied ever giving the rebels a Buk launcher, and suggested that instead the Ukrainian army had a number of Buk systems in the vicinity. They have also claimed a Ukrainian fighter jet was in the vicinity of MH17 at the time of the crash.

Separatist leader Alexander Borodai denied that the rebels were responsible for the crash in a statement to the press early Tuesday morning. Ukraine had the “technical ability and the motive” to carry out the attack, he claimed, while the rebels had neither. Rebels have, however, downed a number of Ukrainian planes in recent weeks, meaning they do possess some anti-aircraft weaponry.

US officials have said they have satellite evidence that a missile was launched at MH17 from the region of Snizhne last Thursday, and are due to make the evidence public later on Tuesday.

5.40pm BST

Eyewitnesses report likely Buk system near crash site

Several eyewitnesses tell the Guardian that they’ve seen what appeared to be a Buk missile launcher in the vicinity of the crash site last Thursday, Shaun Walker reports from Torez. The missile system is presumed to be the model responsible for shooting down MH17.

The sightings back up a number of photographs and videos posted online which put the Buk system in the close location of the crash site on the day of the crash. Just before lunchtime last Thursday, just prior to the take-off of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, the Buk drove through one of the central thoroughfares of Torez, Gagarin St, witnesses said.

The tarmac on Gagarin St is filled with the ruts made by tank treads, and locals say that armoured vehicles controlled by separatists driving through the town has become a regular occurrence in recent weeks. The convoy last Thursday was different, however.

“We were inside and heard a noise much louder than usual,” said one shopkeeper, who did not want to be identified. “We came running out and saw a jeep disappearing into the distance with something much larger in front of it. Later, customers said it had been a missile carrier.”

In another shop further down the street, they had seen the convoy of two jeeps and the missile launcher, covered in a net, driving past in the direction of the town of Snizhne.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said one middle-aged woman, who said afterwards her husband showed her a photograph of a Buk launcher and she realised that is indeed what she had seen. A group of men also said they had seen the Buk.

There have been suggestions that the missile was fired from fields on the outskirts of Snizhne.

A still taken from a video made available by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, purportedly showing a truck carrying a Buk missile launcher. Photograph: AP

Updated at 7.40pm BST

5.32pm BST

Leaders advocating increased pressure on Russia insist Tuesday’s work does not constitute an empty threat, Julian’s report from Brussels continues.

“Some of this will happen,” Bildt predicted. There will be a meeting of EU ambassadors on Thursday. It is not known whether a further foreign minister, or even heads of government meeting, will be called to give the green light to any new punitive measures.

The Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, described the package as “quite forceful”.

British officials said that the tone of the EU statement had toughened considerably in the course of the day, in part because of harrowing accounts presented to the ministers of the scene at the crash site, but also accounts of tampering with the scene. Bildt said there were reports of items being inserted into the scene in an effort to confuse the investigation.

5.25pm BST

EU does not order immediate sanctions on Russia

“Cronies” of President Vladimir Putin have been targeted but EU sanctions remain withheld, the Guardian’s Julian Borger (@julianborger) reports Brussels.

The European Union has not pulled the trigger on sanctions today, but it has loaded up with some hefty new bullets. A number of Putin “cronies”, close associates in his inner circles, are going to be added to the list of targets for sanctions being drawn up by the Commission. The expansion of the list is to be done “immediately”, rather than by the end of the month – a decision accelerated and expanded as a result of the downing of MH17.

The European foreign service has also been asked to draw up a list of sectoral, “tier three” sanctions, targeting “access to capital markets, defence, dual use goods and sensitive technologies. These list has to be completed by Thursday, though that does not mean they will be imposed then. The sanctions are conditional on Russian cooperation with the inquiry into the shooting down of MH17, and an end to the “increasing flow of weapons, equipment and militants across the border.”

Updated at 10.29pm BST

5.21pm BST

Putin also lashed out at punitive sanctions from western nations, calling them “strange logic, and of course absolutely unacceptable”, continues Alec’s report from Moscow.

With the European Union expected to adopt expanded sanctions this week, Putin painted sanctions as unjustified and ineffective.

“Russia is being given what almost amounts to ultimatums: let us destroy part of the population that ethnically, culturally and historically close to Russia, or we’ll adopt some sanctions against you. It’s strange logic, and of course it’s absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

Putin also said outside forces would use intelligence services, the media and non-governmental organisations to destabilise Russia and make it “pliant in deciding issues in favour of the interests of other governments.”

Although Putin promised his government would not “tighten the screws”, his comments suggested that the Kremlin’s information war would continue. Russian media have presented a far different view of the Malaysian Airlines disaster, focusing on theories hinting that the Ukrainian or US governments downed the plane.

Human rights advocates assert that Russia will continue to crack down on free speech, criticizing Putin for a law signed Tuesday that would inflicts heavy fines or jail time for “repeated violation of established procedures … during rallies, gatherings, demonstrations, marches or picketing”.

The Kremlin also announced that Putin has spoken with Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte in a series of phone calls about the crash and investigation.

5.13pm BST

Putin also called for the west to pressure Kiev into “at least a short-term ceasefire”, continues the Guardian’s Alec Luhn (@asluhn) report from Moscow.

But he said that for the investigation to work, Kiev must “implement at least a short-term ceasefire,” arguing that the international experts arriving to study the tragedy “couldn’t stick their heads out” because of a tank attack by government forces on the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has ordered his military to honor a 40km no-fire zone around the crash site, but heaving fighting and shelling continues near the are. Rebel forces have agreed to a 10km ceasefire zone around the crash, according to AFP and ABC News reporters.

Russia president Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Russian security council in Moscow. Photograph: ITAR-TASS/Barcroft Media

Updated at 5.15pm BST

5.08pm BST

President Vladimir Putin has promised to use Russia’s influence on separatist rebels to ensure a comprehensive investigation, the Guardian’s Alec Luhn (@asluhn) reports from Moscow.

At a meeting of the country’s security council, Putin also condemned western sanctions and called on Kiev to implement a ceasefire.

The comments mark the first time that Putin has openly agreed to urge the rebels to cooperate and are the most in-depth expression of his foreign policy since a speech celebrating the annexation of Crimea in March.

“We have been called on put pressure on the rebels in the southeast. We will of course do everything that is in our power,” Putin said, speaking before a long table of officials and army and intelligence officers.

Gunfire, mortars and artillery threaten civilians in Donetsk, where separatist rebels and Ukrainian soldiers continue to fight on the outskirts. A number of combatants have died on each side, and rebels reported five people killed Monday. Harriet Salem (@harrietsalem) could hear artillery from the crash site and AFP reports that civilians are trying to take shelter.

Reporters heard artillery fire coming from the Ukrainian side in the village of Oktyabrsky close to the airport, which has now come under full government control.

Around 30 rebels, some in balaclavas or black bandanas, immediately raised their Kalashnikov rifles and asked reporters to leave.

“We are expecting a column of heavy armour from the enemy side,” a fighter nicknamed “Black” said, adding: “Our efforts are being hampered by their snipers … A sniper could take me out right now.”

A pro-Russian separatist at a checkpoint in the northern outskirts of city of Donetsk. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images

4.37pm BST

Dutch representatives have received the MH17 black boxes from the Malaysian colonel who met with rebels, the BBC’s Kevin Bishop confirms. The boxes will travel next to the UK, where they will be analyzed by British investigators.

Details of the preliminary receipt and examination of the train in Kharkiv are still pending, however, as Vice News’ Simon Ostrovsky relays:

French President Francois Hollande has confirmed plans to sell a warship to Russia, in defiance of American and British allies, Reuters reports.

Speaking on the eve of an EU meeting to discuss sanctions on Moscow over the downing of a civilian airliner over Ukraine, Hollande said that a first Mistral warship would be handed over on schedule in October but a decision on a second would depend on Russia’s attitude.

It was the clearest signal yet that Paris will go through with the deal and came only hours after British Prime Minister David Cameron said it would be “unthinkable” for his country to fulfil such an order.

“Just because the Americans say ‘jump’ we shouldn’t jump,” Xavier Bertrand, a former minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, told France Inter radio. “France’s word, its signature, must be respected.”

Some 400 members of the Russian navy arrived in France in June to be trained on the ship, and the original contract stipulated the sale of two vessels for for €1.2bn.

4.20pm BST

Reporting from the ground in Donetsk, Harriet Salem (@harrietsalem) delivers details of the train’s arrival in Kharkiv, where Ukrainian government forces and international teams have received it. It’s unclear whether Malaysian or Dutch experts accompanied the train from rebel-held territory.

The precise number of bodies on the train has not been verified. Ukrainian authorities said that 282 bodies, plus body parts from an additional 16 victims, had been recovered. The self-styled prime minister of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Alexander Borodai, said there were a further 87 body fragments, but did not say how many people these might represent.

There were 298 people in total on the downed flight.

It was initially thought that the remains would be examined by a team of specialists once they arrived in Kharkiv, where Ukrainian officials said a crisis centre had been prepared to store the remains and hotels were ready to receive relatives. But on Monday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, said all bodies would be taken to the Netherlands.